Power: A Page Out of Promise
by Notorious P.A.T
Summary: I am still alive. A side story that was originally meant to be used in Chapter 18 of Promise.


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A/N: I am still alive. Please enjoy. Love and be loved. Read… and review!

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Power

Power: the strength and ability to act. Ah, how wonderful it is to be in or to have power. Power has been known to create as well as destroy everything that stands in its way. To have power is to control… but power can become bloodthirsty and ravenous. It will turn those who have it into monsters and assailants. Power can murder. Pillage. Plunder. Crush. Power can lead to downfall. Power can lead to the loss of millions of innocents. Power can lead entire nations into war. Power lies and deceives. Power will control. Power will invoke untold damage. Power is merciless. Power is a systematic kill machine. Power is the ability to control your surroundings. Power is… power. And unfortunately… I am powerless.

Shackled and chained down, this is the fate that has befallen me. This is the torture to which I am subject. I cannot escape because, once again, I am powerless and so I am currently doomed to this punishment. My eyelids are as heavy as stone, but I slowly open them to the world around me; a world that is on fire.

My eyes first fall upon the wire attached to my belly. A rusted chain floats seemingly from nowhere and wraps a belt around my waist. I follow the chain link up to its source- but I cannot see it. It leads into the blue and green darkness that surrounds me. With a mask built around my mouth to aide my breathing, I surmise that I'm underwater. I try to shake my arm forward, but the chains stiffen just as they have been since we got here. I lift my face upward and this mask around my mouth— this muzzle— follows my every move. Looking towards the sky I peer out of the eyes- out of my own eyes! This THING that's in control of my body peers out into a thick blackness, but she is moving quickly . . . swiftly . . . gracefully. Like I used to run. Bitch! She's taken the love I feel for Takato and turned it on its head! She now turns my love into the hatred that fuels her! That bitch! I'll kill her! I pull my arms and legs into my body so that I am now in a ball and kick all of my limbs out at once- pain ensuing. In this murky water, my body glows with electricity as I am stunned. The chains squeeze tight around my limbs and hold me stiff while my energy is zapped from me. Looking up, I see myself increase my sprint to new highs. Fuck! This is so useless! But how do I escape? How will I ever be free? How?

Suddenly, however, I come to a stop. The shocks also stop and my arms and legs slowly float through the water and helplessly come to a rest by my side. I twitch almost unconsciously from the pain and when I try to lift my arms to wrap them around me and comfort myself, the chains stop that as well. There is no escape.

We've been trapped in this dungeon all along. The three of us- Henry, Ryo and me- ventured into that cave and thus walked right into the Darkness's grasping claws. Once inside, the Darkness tried to have the three of us killed, but it wouldn't be. With every possible bad image from our past's plowing into our minds, the Darkness was {P_willing_ us to ask for death.

Unfortunately for it, however, something inside of me set of a reverse reaction and the trap was destroyed . . . but the damage was done. We had lost control of our bodies and fallen under the spell of the Darkness, turning into living, breathing puppets. But what happened next was the apex of horror. When I lost control, my mind left my body. My own free will and ability to choose for myself was removed from within. When the light that set us free was exhausted, my whole body began to fall. I was falling through nothingness, but in reality, I was falling through the black emptiness of my own hallow shell. Tumbling over myself as I fell, I looked down into a deep black pit, before finally I felt my body hit water… but I didn't stop or even slow down. I continued to fall through the water as if I had been thrust off a cliff. I tried to scream, but my lungs filled up with water and choked me. Would it never stop? Was this the Darkness's way of killing me after it had failed the first time? No, but rather its way of securing it's strangle hold on me.

I came to a halt in my falling, about as abruptly as I had begun it. I swayed for a moment in the dark, brackish water that penetrated my lungs. I saw something snake its way towards me before suddenly something sharp and large, about the size of my head, crashed into my stomach and began to suck the life out of me! Looking down, it looked almost like a plunger that was lodged inside of my stomach. I grabbed hold of the cord that was attached to it and tried to pull it away. It started to become dislodged but it wasn't a plunger at all, but instead, it started to make the shape of a cone. As I pulled it further and further away the cone got thinner and thinner at the top. Up and up it went as it slowly began to decrease and shrink until it was as thin as…

A needle. Pulled all the way out of my body, here I stood staring at a needle that had just moments ago been lodged in my gut, sucking my strength away. What… what was that thing doing-

_**SWOOP!**_

My head hung limp, hinging on my spinal cord like that of a dead and decaying pig's head hung on the end of a spear, as I stared forever up into the abysmal darkness. A second needle had struck me square in the back, nestled gently right in my spinal cord. My hands had slipped off of the first needle, which then went darting right back into me and both went to work at extinguishing my flame. My body hung there, suspended in this water as these needles chewed away at my insides. I felt my bare feet touch one another, and my hands rested at my sides with palms exposed. What was I to do? How was I to escape? There must be a way . . . there is always a way. But how?

_**SWOOSH!**_

The black abyss strikes at me again. It sends a needle through both of my hands and a single needle through both of my feet, one atop the other. These needles are smaller, but burn just the same as they slowly ascend upwards and my limbs follow suit. Both of my feet are drug downward by there single needle, extending my legs down further than they ever have or were intended to stretch down. My hands, meanwhile, are drug skyward ever so slowly. Inching upward, there crawl is ever so monotonous, boring even, but at the same time, it is painful and hurts. Finally, they come to a stop when they are even with my shoulders and then, suddenly, they too are yanked to there fullest and most painful extent!

It hurt so badly, to be pulled so far apart that I felt on the verge of ripping, right down the middle. All the while, these needles are doing their best to draw out any and all of the strength from within me. I feel so weak, so defeated, so fragile. A sudden blemish befalls my shoulder blade and I am drawn to stare at the spot. Is that . . . blood? A rip came across my neck and I felt a searing pain, as if someone had just scratched me very deeply with long, sharp nails. Perhaps not for the first time I became aware that I was strangely devoid of all the clothing I had been wearing in the cave. I felt as if I'd been in this position before, but for the life of me, I could not recall when or where I had been naked and feeling drained of energy before? Where was this déjà vu coming from? Whatever it was, I couldn't recall and I felt more gashes and cuts begin to form across my body, and with each new damage came the seething pain of the water assaulting these wounds and invading my body. New wounds burst forth in bunches and attack my defenseless body, storming in and attacking every unoccupied spot. The pain continued to mount and overwhelm me until it became dizzying and I felt disoriented. Suddenly, the scar-forming reached a crescendo and came to a stop. Feeling strangely thirsty, I opened my mouth and took in the water. I opened wide for the choking dark green-blue water to envelope my lungs and suffocate every last breath. Before I knew what's happening, however, another something or other shoots its way through the water toward me. This time, it's aimed for my face! It struck just below my nose and. . . . I could breathe again! I crossed my eyes and look down to find a mask around my mouth, no, wait, wasn't a mask. . . It was a muzzle. I'd been saved by the same device that will forever silence me! How would I ever thank it?

From that moment forth it was just punishment. I quickly discovered how ruthless the marionette strings could be as the Darkness controlled me without controlling me. It had complete power over my body but not over my mind. However, having control over mine own mind only lead to further horror. It was so long ago I can't really remember how much time passed, but I remember quite clearly seeing the dark, violet light spread out before me and the time that passed.

I had been struggling against my chains for some time, with no success, when I saw something overshadow myself and my pointless efforts. A tinted shade of purple was washing over everything I saw. The water was shaded in this color now, and I didn't understand why. I turned my head up to the sky, and saw something I had not done yet, surprisingly, and the sight was horrifying.

Looking up, I saw what looked like a pair of circular windows. That is probably the best description I can give them… just… windows. That's what they were, and from them I peered out into a shimmering, purple light. I saw a pair of hands that were slightly playing with the light as it flickered and shrank away as the hands moved in a strange, circular motion around it. Suddenly, the hands grabbed hold of the light and it engulfed the windows. I wasn't quite sure what happened next, but before long the windows were peering out onto a desert floor. They looked up and the first thing that came into view was Takato! A small, round object came swimming swiftly through the water until it came to a stop and then floated in front of my lifeless body. A holographic image popped up… and it was also Takato. It showed me a breakdown of his every body part, but, even more horrifying, it displayed memories I had with him! They were memories both of in battle with him from our Tamer days but also from my relationship with him from the previous Autumn and subsequent months that followed, and from that point forward I watched everything unfold before me. I watched it all.

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A/N: Almost 2 years ago, this was suppose to be the opening for Chapter 18 of Promise. I've decided to post it now instead to let everyone know I am still alive and I still intend on working on and FINISHING Promise, in the future. I'm sorry to everyone disappointed in my disapperance. These things just happen. I got busy with high school and then I went to college. Let me hear some love if there are any UConn students reading this. Get at me, bro. I will not answer any questions about Promise nor the following chapter nor then ensuing plotline. My writing skills have, however, grown immensely since you last saw me. I hope this did not disappoint. If you didn't catch it, it was suppose to be an insight into what Rika went through when she was first captured by The Darkness in the cave in Dark Ocean World. Again, this was written almost 2 years ago. That will be all for now. Expect Chapter 18 in the near future. All right, I'm out of here. Hope everyone enjoys. Okay, peace!

Love Always. Rukato Forever.

"Gentlemen it's time to spread the word, and the word is… _Panic_!"  
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